Barrow 22

Sheffield Eagles 10

Barrow marked their return to the Championship with a hard earned victory over the Eagles.

Barrow were dealt a blow with Jarrad Sammut twisting his ankle in the warm up, Jake Carter coming into the half back position.

It was an all-round team performance that saw Barrow to victory with French wizard Hakim Miloudi once more dazzling the opposition to set up a Tee Ritson try before galloping away for a 40-yarder.

Three tries to the home side with local boy Ellis Gillam on his home debut having the honour of crossing for the first try of the campaign.

Barrow never had it all their own way, with the Eagles a threatening force in the first half. They ran at Barrow with speed and creativity, and it looked like a tough 80 minutes for the home fans.

But once settled, Barrow were worthy winners with the wind and rain in the second period denying the Eagles any points.

They found it difficult to penetrate against a rock-solid defence which saw Danny Langtree earn the sponsors’ man-of-the-match accolade. The former Oldham man was a force both in attack and defence.

The game was barely half an hour old when Barrow were caught offside. From the tap penalty the ball moved swiftly through the hands of danger man Anthony Thackeray and Josh Guzdek for Ben Jones-Bishop to stroll in at the corner, 0-4.

Barrow almost responded with Mildoui parting to Ritson but the wingman was bundled into touch.

However on ten minutes Barrow went ahead after Jake Carter’s kick through cover enabled Gillam to pounce and dot the ball down for Ryan Shaw to convert 6-4.

The Eagles were down to 12 men after Joel Farrell went in high on Jarrad Stack. From the tap Stack lost the ball crossing the line.

Shaw increased the lead with a goal after the Eagles were caught offside, 8-4.

On the half-hour mark the lead was with the Eagles with swift handling along the line enabling Thackeray to prise open a gap to go over. He also tagged on the goal, 8-10.

The final four minutes of the half was turned on its head through Miloudi. On the last tackle and nowhere to go the Frenchman took on the Eagles’ defence, dancing through the cover to hack the ball out wide. Tee Ritson gathered to come back inside like an express train to cross the whitewash for Shaw to convert, 14-10.

Then on the stroke of half time an Eagles player dropped the ball 40 yards from his own line, Miloudi swooped and galloped in at the corner, 18-10

The second period was tight with no further tries on the scoreboard. The boot of Shaw made it 20-10, which turned into 22-10 when Ritson was taken high in the tackle.

The final minutes saw Barrow under pressure, being forced to drop out on three occasions, but the defence stood firm to take the points and now they travel up the coast to face Whitehaven next Sunday.

Barrow: Creswell, Ritson, Miloudi, D Toal, Shaw, Carter, Johnston, Forster, Wood, Gillam, Langtree, Stack, Iaria. Subs used: Mossop, Emslie, Brooks Morrow.

Sheffield Eagles: Guzdek, Jones-Bishop, Welham, Oakes, Bass, I Farrell, Thackeray, Kirk, Halafihi, Dickinson, L Johnson, J Farrell, Hodgson. Interchange: Davey, Wood, Broadbent, Reilly.

Referee: Tom Grant. Attendance: 1,927.